


The heat that fuels Hecate's flames

by orphan_account



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, Epic Battles, Established Relationship, F/F, Fever, Fluff and Angst, Headcanon, Hurt/Comfort, I can't help it, I love that Palace, Near Death Experiences, Non-Canon Relationship, Please Give This Story A Try, Sick Character, Spoilers for Sixth Palace, Stronger Characters and Enemies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 05:05:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19823137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After securing their route to the Treasure, the exhausted Phantom Thieves are ambushed by bloodthirsty Shadows that sure do know how to exploit the fact that they're running dangerously low on health and magic. Fortunately, fever and rage do nothing but fuel Hecate's flames, allowing Panther to ravish those who stay on her way and injure her beloved ones.





	1. Chapter 1

The Shadows of Sae’s Palace were rather ruthless, especially when the Casino’s security was all over the place because of their sneaky and shady nature. That had brought The Phantom Thieves to their current situation: ambushed by bloodthirsty Shadows, three Ganeshas to be precise, low on health and about to run out of magic when they had been trying to escape the Casino after securing the route to the Treasure.

“They’re weak to psychokinesis,” Queen muttered through gritted teeth, observing the three elephant-like Shadows anxiously.

A snort resonated beside her. “Fantastic,” Crow whispered sarcastically, eyeing the Shadows as well. “Noir is in the sidelines and Joker doesn’t have enough magic left to cast an attack of that sort.”

Before Joker or Panther could even have the chance to say something, anything at all, one Ganesha made the first move, casting a  _ Rebellion  _ and incrementing the critical rate of one of its allies. 

Said ally turned out to be the next one attacking, and taking advantage of the  _ Rebellion _ , it used  _ Miracle Punch _ , inflicting critical damage on Crow and defeating him in the process. The three remaining Thieves stared at their fallen ally with unreadable expressions before focusing back on the battle.

Joker’s eyes opened as far as they could go when he saw that the Ganesha was staring at him, the first traces of the  _ Giant Slice  _ sparkling right in front of him. He hissed as he noticed that he wouldn’t be able to dodge, and braced himself for the attack.

However, he was pushed aside by someone and ended up evading the attack. When he looked up, he found out that the one who had saved him was Panther, who was now breathing heavily and bleeding considerably from her new wound, which sliced her entire stomach. They locked eyes for a second, enough for him to express his gratitude with a nod and for her to flash a wavering and pained smile at him.

The next Ganesha howled as it casted a  _ Miracle Punch _ at Queen, who ended up dodging it, mainly because she tripped with Crow’s unconscious body. 

“Here come the buffs!” Oracle exclaimed as she bestowed  _ Thermopylae  _ on the remaining team members, rising their attack, defense and speed. “Chances of escaping are minimum, you have to take them down no matter what,” she then added, and the three of them nodded.

“Trumpeter!” Joker summoned his Persona as he stared at the Ganesha with the critical rate up before smirking. As he casted his  _ One-Shot Kill _ , boosted by the  _ Cripple  _ ability that Trumpeter had, he felt how a good chunk of his health was taken away from him, but the loss was worth it when he saw the Ganesha fall to its knees.

The leader of the Phantom Thieves pondered his options for a moment before granting a Baton Pass to Panther, whispering her to shoot the Shadows until she ran out of bullets. The blonde did as she was told, grabbing her Mantares somewhat weakly and struggling to aim but managing to turn the downed Ganesha into dark ash and hurt one, albeit slightly, in the process.

Queen proceeded to follow up their ongoing attacks and casted a  _ Freidyne  _ on the Ganesha that Panther had hurt previously. She grimaced when she noticed that there was no magic running throughout her system, but she adopted an offensive stance despite knowing that Ganeshas were strong against physical attacks.

Panther was next, but unfortunately didn’t have enough magic to cast an  _ Agidyne _ , nor did she have any bullets left, so instead she just charged forward and tried whipping the gravely injured Shadow, but found herself missing because of a great miscalculation.  _ “Shit!”  _ she thought as she stared at the Ganesha, her eyesight growing cloudy for some seconds before being hit by yet another  _ Giant Slice _ .

Queen and Joker hurried to her side as she panted, a curtain of smoke coming out of her mouth as she did. Panther quickly covered her mouth with her right hand, feeling her  _ extremely  _ hot breath despite the thick glove that covered her hand. 

Before she could say anything reassuring, which would most likely be ignored because even  _ she  _ knew that she shouldn’t be in the frontline while having a killer fever, the second Ganesha casted a  _ Miracle Punch  _ that managed to down, but not defeat, Queen. Almost immediately, the Shadow attacked, sans special skill or whatsoever, Joker, who barely endured the hit.

Joker stared at the two Shadows in front of him, not knowing what to do. They were out of healing items, they didn’t have enough magic to heal themselves nor attack the enemies, they were also out of bullets and so low on health that they’d be defeated on the next round without a doubt. He was brought back to reality, if only to the cognitive one, by Panther, who had placed her right hand on his shoulder.

“Leave this to me,” Panther ordered, to which Joker nodded, knowing that there was no room for negotiation.

She took some wobbly steps forward as the Ganeshas laughed at her. The noise only made her headache worse, but that only made her smirk. Peering over her shoulder, she saw Queen holding on to Joker while she shook her head, coming back to her senses. Red eyes met blue for a second, and she could see all sorts of emotions flashing through Queen’s eyes as she realized what was happening.

Looking back to the Ganeshas, she focused on the heat that embraced and burned her muscles as much as it pained her sore bones. Exhaling smoke again, she removed her mask, summoning Hecate right behind her as her reddened and sweating face came into view. 

“Dance, Hecate!” She exclaimed, reaching out her hand toward the Ganeshas as she casted a  _ Maragidyne _ that managed to defeat them both despite their health difference. Panther panted again, her smirk turning into a small smile as she realized that her fever had boosted her skills.

Giggling briefly, she hit the floor as her entire body spasmed before it shut down, falling unconscious in the blink of an eye. In order to cast a spell that she didn’t have enough magic for, she had used both her remaining magic and health, leaving her completely drained.

The entire team reunited right after that, and Joker ended up carrying Crow with Skull’s help all the way to the exit while Noir and Queen carried Panther. On their way home, they ended up discussing what had made the security levels increase that much, and ended up deciding that it must have been because they had upsetted Sae by rigging the already rigged games and making it to where the Treasure was alive and kicking.

* * *

  
  
  


“Could I, uh, spend the night with you, Mako?” Ann asked her shyly once they were back in the real world and on their way to the nearest train station. Her cheeks and nose were tinted red because of her fever, her breaths were warm and sweat occasionally fell from her temples all the way down her face till her chin. “I really hate to be alone when I’m sick.”

Makoto nodded, surrounding her girlfriend’s waist carefully with her left arm before kissing her forehead fondly. “I’d like that,” she whispered, not remembering that Sae was supposed to be at home for the night.

Ann giggled and closed her eyes, a long sigh escaping her lips when her laughter died down.

“I was worried for you, back in the Casino,” Makoto began, her voice quiet but full of emotion. “When you fainted after taking down those two Shadows, for a hot moment I thought that you wouldn’t wake up… I really believed that you were done for given the spontaneity of the events. I’m so glad that you’re okay, as okay as you can be anyway… And I wanted to thank you, for saving us back there and for giving me strength throughout the whole Palace breakthrough.”

The blonde smiled at Makoto, fondness sparkling within her tired eyes, before kissing her cheek. “Anything for you, babe.”


	2. Bonus

“S-Sis!” Makoto exclaimed, her heart throbbing in such a frantic way that she thought that it was going to tear its way out of her body.

The older Niijima stared at her sister, then at Ann, and lastly at their linked hands and intertwined fingers, all with an unreadable poker face that frightened Makoto to no end. 

“You look familiar,” Sae whispered, mostly for herself, while she kept on glaring at Ann with one eyebrow raised and her left hand underneath her chin. It was then that the blonde began to sweat nervously, chills running down her spine as Sae examined her. “Ah, you must be Takamaki Ann, right?”

“Yes. Nice to finally meet you, Niijima-san,” Ann replied, smiling lightly, unsure of how to approach Sae. 

Makoto shifted uncomfortably as she stared at the exchange of formalities, practically sweating bullets as she gathered the courage to come out to her sister.

“While you may not be a boy, Takamaki-san, that doesn’t mean that I won’t give you _the_ talk about taking care of my sister and making her happy. However, I can see that you’re rather feverish, so I’ll save it for another occasion,” Sae said, smiling for the first time in days and shocking Makoto.

The brunette’s soul was leaving her body by the point in which Sae had said the words “the talk”. “W-Wait! Does that mean that you already _knew_ that I was in a relationship with Ann?” Makoto questioned clearly surprised.

“Makoto, don’t forget that I’m a prosecutor,” Sae said with a smirk. “Now really, I may or may have not seen you in Shibuya being rather affectionate towards the other. Besides, Sakura-san proved to be rather useful when I asked him about the issue.”

Both teenagers stared at Sae completely dumbfounded, at a loss of words. Silence drowned the three of them until Makoto found her voice again.

“Well, this went better than I had originally expected.”


End file.
